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Nigeria
Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal republic comprising thirty-seven states. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south. The capital city is Lagos. The people of Nigeria have an extensive history, and archaeological evidence shows that human habitation of the area dates back to at least 9000 BC. The Benue-Cross River area is thought to be the original homeland of the Bantu migrants who spread across most of central and southern Africa in waves between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium AD. With a population of over 140 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and one of the ten most populous countries in the world. A middle-income country, its economy has flourished greatly for most of its history, due to massive reserves of petroleum and natural gas and prudent economic policies. However, corruption is rife, the gap between rich and poor is one of the largest in the world, and the country's poor human rights record has come under much scrutiny abroad. History Early history The Nok people in central Nigeria produced terracotta sculptures that have been discovered by archaeologists. A Nok sculpture resident at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts portrays a sitting dignitary wearing a "Shepherds Crook" on the right arm, and a "hinged flail" on the left. These are symbols of authority associated with Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, and the god Osiris, and suggests that an ancient Egyptian style of social structure, and perhaps religion, existed in the area of modern Nigeria during the late Pharonic period. In the northern part of the country, Kano and Katsina has recorded history which dates back to around AD 999. Hausa kingdoms and the Kanem-Bornu Empire prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa. The Yoruba people date their presence in the area of modern republics of Nigeria, Benin and Togo to about 8500 BC. The kingdoms of Ifẹ and Oyo in the western block of Nigeria became prominent about 700-900 and 1400 respectively. However, the Yoruba mythology believes that Ile-Ife is the source of the human race and that it predates any other civilization. Ifẹ produced the terra cotta and bronze heads, the Ọyọ extended as far as modern Togo. Another prominent kingdom in south western Nigeria was the Kingdom of Benin whose power lasted between the 15th and 19th century. Their dominance reached as far as the well known city of Eko which was named Lagos by the Portuguese traders and other early European settlers. In the 18th century, the Oyo and the Aro confederacy were responsible for most of the slaves exported from Nigeria. The colonial era Following the Napoleonic wars, the British expanded trade with the Nigerian interior. In 1885 British claims to a West African sphere of influence received international recognition and in the following year the Royal Niger Company was chartered under the leadership of Sir George Taubman Goldie. In 1900 the company's territory came under the control of the British Government, which moved to consolidate its hold over the area of modern Nigeria. On January 1, 1901 Nigeria became a British protectorate, part of the British Empire, the foremost world power at the time. In 1914 the area was formally united as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Administratively Nigeria remained divided into the northern and southern provinces and Lagos colony. Western education and the development of a modern economy proceeded more rapidly in the south than in the north, with consequences felt in Nigeria's political life ever since. Following World War II, in response to the growth of Nigerian nationalism and demands for independence, successive constitutions legislated by the British government moved Nigeria toward self-government on a representative and increasingly federal basis. By the middle of the 20th century, the great wave for independence was sweeping across Africa. Post-independence On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom. The new republic incorporated a number of people with aspirations of their own sovereign nations. Newly independent Nigeria's government was a coalition of conservative parties: the Nigerian People's Congress (NPC), a party dominated by Northerners and those of the Islamic faith, and the Igbo and Christian dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became Nigeria's maiden Governor-General in 1960. Forming the opposition was the comparatively liberal Action Group (AG), which was largely dominated by Yorubas and led by Obafemi Awolowo. The nation parted with its British legacy in 1963 by declaring itself a Federal Republic, with Azikiwe as the first president. When elections came about in 1965, the AG was outmaneuvered for control of Nigeria's Western Region by the Nigerian National Democratic Party, an amalgamation of conservative Yoruba elements backed heavily by the Federal Government amid dubious electoral circumstances. This left the Igbo NCNC to coalesce with the remnants of the AG in a weak progressive alliance. Military era This disequilibrium and perceived corruption of the electoral and political process led in 1966 to several back-to-back coups. The subsequent political and social instability and chaotic, unpredictable climate scared away foreign investors, led to a suspension of foreign aid, polarized society, and had calamitous effects on the economy. An increasingly leftist trend in the upper echelons of the armed forces alarmed the United States and other Western countries, and in 1970 the pro-Western Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon seized power with CIA assistance. He immediately banned the Communist Party, severed ties with the Soviets, and opened the country to foreign investment. The economy grew healthily, but pervasive corruption meant that little of this newfound wealth trickled down to the populace, and public disenchantment with Gowon mounted. He was himself overthrown in 1973 and exiled to the United Kingdom. His successor, the left-leaning General Tunji Sango, rapidly reversed course. The Soviet embassy was allowed to re-open, the Communist Party was legalized, the oil industry was nationalized, and several progressive, populist policies were introduced. While immensely popular with the masses, Sango was hated and feared by the country's elite, who openly advocated his overthrow. They got their wish, and in 1975 Sango was deposed and assassinated in a coup led by Murtala Mohammed. Mohammed made great strides in reducing corruption, while pursuing a neutral foreign policy and presiding over a mixed economy. However, after hinting at democratic reforms, military hard-liners removed him and put him under house arrest. A provisional junta ruled for three months before selecting General Owoye Azazi, a relative unknown, as Mohammed's replacement. Unlike his predecessors, General Azazi possessed a remarkable political acuity and ability to survive. Between 1976 and 1979, he helped suppress no less than fourteen coup attempts, and purged the military of thousands of officers suspected of "disloyalty." He banned political parties, introduced strict censorship laws, implemented nationwide curfews, increased spending on defense and law enforcement, and dealt with both crime and dissent (though they were practically synonymous to him) ruthlessly. His regime is most remembered for its implementation of classically liberal and neo-liberal economic reforms, including the privatization of several state controlled industries and the rollback of many state welfare institutions. These policies were very successful in recovering economic growth (and are often called "the Miracle of Nigeria"), but they dramatically increased inequality, and some of their effects are sharply contested to this day. While millions of Nigerians were lifted out of poverty, life expectancy rose, and infant mortality fell, many of the poorer Nigerians plunged ever deeper into poverty, and the rising disparity in income and deteriorating living standards for the poor produced growing friction that made strikes, protests, and riots increasingly frequent. While Nigeria became a haven for foreign investment, it came at the price of social and political freedom; dissent continued to be brutally repressed. On a positive note, he won praise for stamping out tribalism and religious tension for the most part, even if this was accomplished through force. By 1990, Nigeria had become a middle-income country with a relatively developed infrastructure, a large and educated middle-class, and fairly high (by Third World standards) living standards, but income inequality had soared to such unprecedented heights that even conservative allies of Azazi expressed alarm. Leftists called for a more equitable distribution of wealth; leftists and rightists alike called for democratization. To placate public opinion, Azazi restored parliament, grudgingly allowed token demonstrations, permitted mild criticism of the government, and lifted the ban on political parties. He decreed that two political parties could exist, one "a little to the left," the other "a little to the right." The newly created parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention, were overwhelmingly comprised of Azazi loyalists. Both parties were forced to strictly adhere to centrist manifestoes and shun "extremism, polarization, tribalism, religious insensitivity, excess politicization, and anti-populace tendencies." Parliamentary elections were scheduled for 1993, but Azazi died before they could be held. His successor, General Mohammed Abubakar, allowed them to proceed. A hard-liner, Abubakar reversed some of Azazi's more liberal policies and repressed dissent even more forcefully than his predecessor. More controversially, he introduced the death penalty for homosexuality, and declared a "national crusade" against homosexuals. Yet, he managed to avoid discontent by sating the populace with subsidized gasoline, free healthcare and education, and low-cost housing units for the poor. Nevertheless, his commitment to market economics was as strong as Azari's had been, and he repeatedly assured foreign investors they had nothing to fear from it, and proved it by doing away with nearly all of Nigeria's (precious few) economic regulations. As of 2008, Nigeria's economy has continued to grow healthily, yet there are also issues of growing concern. Increasing scrutiny from human rights organizations and foreign governments, re-emergent class tensions, steadily rising crime rates, declining standards in education and health, and a low-scale insurgency in the oil-rich Niger Delta are among the difficulties Nigeria faces today. How well it can weather them and continue to advance as a nation, and whether democracy will ever come or not, remains to be seen. Government and politics Nigeria is a federal republic organizationally modelled after the United States, with executive power exercised by the president and with overtones of the Westminster System model in the composition and management of the upper and lower houses of the bicameral legislature. The current president of Nigeria is General Mohammed Abubakar, who succeeded General Owoye Azazi upon the latter's death in 1993. The president presides as both chief of state and head of government. While the constitution stipulates that the president is to be elected by popular vote and be limited to a maximum of two four-year terms, this provision has been ignored by Nigeria's military rulers for decades. The president's power is checked, at least on paper, by a Senate and a House of Representatives, which are combined in a bicameral body called the National Assembly; in reality, this body rarely provides even token opposition, and is largely filled by yes-men whose only purposes are to provide an illusion of democratic governance and approve the president's initiatives. The Senate is an 111-seat body with three members from each state; members are elected by state legislatures to four-year terms. The House contains 360 seats and the number of seats per state is determined by population. Only two political parties are legal and allowed to hold office, the centrist Social Democratic Party and National Republican Convention, the former leaning "a little to the left," and the latter "a little to the right." Both parties' platforms were written by the military government, and both parties are forced to toe the government line, and forbidden from propagating "seditious, anti-family, anti-religion, or anti-government beliefs." Tribalism, once rampant in Nigerian politics and society, has been all but extinguished; political office holders have lost their seats or even been thrown in prison on the flimsiest evidence of holding "tribal tendencies." Corruption, vote rigging, and other means of coercion, including open ballots and the presence of security officers at polling places, make a mockery of Nigerian "democracy." Cabinet Law There are three distinct systems of law in Nigeria: *English Law which is derived from its colonial past with Britain; *common law, a development of its post colonial independence; *customary law, which is derived from indigenous traditional norms and practice The country has a judicial branch, the highest court of which is the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The courts are dominated by politically reliable appointees chosen for sycophany rather than merit. States Not pictured: Southern Cameroons Foreign relations Upon gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria made the liberation and restoration of the dignity of Africa the centerpiece of its foreign policy and played a leading role in the fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa. One notable exception to the African focus of Nigeria's foreign policy was the close relationship the country enjoyed with Israel throughout the 1960s, with the latter country sponsoring and overseeing the construction of Nigeria's parliament buildings. Nigeria's foreign policy was soon tested in the 1970s when it quickly committed itself to the liberation struggles going on in the Southern Africa sub-region. Though Nigeria never sent an expeditionary force in that struggle, it offered more than rhetoric to the African National Congress (ANC) by taking a committed tough line with regard to the racist regime and their incursions in southern Africa, in addition to expediting large sums to aid anti-colonial struggles. Nigeria was also a founding member of the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union), and has tremendous influence in West Africa and Africa on the whole. Nigeria has additionally founded regional cooperative efforts in West Africa, functioning as standard-bearer for ECOWAS and ECOMOG, economic and military organizations respectively. With this African-centered stance, Nigeria readily sent troops to the Congo at the behest of the United Nations shortly after independence (and has maintained membership since that time); Nigeria also supported several Pan African and pro-self government causes in the 1970s, including garnering support for Angola's MPLA, SWAPO in Namibia, and aiding anti-colonial struggles in Mozambique, and Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) military and economically. With few exceptions, Nigeria generally kept aloof from the Cold War, maintaining strict neutrality and enjoying an amicable working relationship with both the United States and the Soviet Union. Nigeria diversified its military hardware by purchasing equal amounts from the West and East. Nigeria retains membership in the Non-Aligned Movement, and in late November 2006 organized an Africa-South America Summit in Abuja to promote what some attendees termed "South-South" linkages on a variety of fronts. Nigeria has remained a key player in the international oil industry since the 1970s, and maintains membership in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which it joined in July 1971. Its status as a major petroleum producer figures prominently in its sometimes vicissitudinous international relations with both developed countries, notably the USA, CSA, and more recently China and developing countries, notably Ghana, Jamaica, and Kenya. Economy Nigeria has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. Since the mid-1970s, the government has sold many state-owned companies, and privatization is continuing as of 2008, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate oil giant NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Nigeria is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Nigeria's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Nigerians. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital Nigeria is rare among African countries in that is a net exporter of food. Whereas other African colonies neglected agriculture in favor of industrialization, Nigeria has invested large amounts in agriculture since independence. Both the state and the private sector continue to invest heavily in this area. Nigeria is the largest producer of groundnuts, palm oil, cocoa, and coconuts in the world, and is among the largest producers of citrus fruits, maize, pearl millet, cassava, yams, and sugar cane. Nigeria's relative prosperity is attributable, at least in part, to its enormous wealth of resources. Nigeria is the 10th largest producer of petroleum in the world, the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest proven reserves. Although much of the oil wealth has been squirreled away by corrupt officials, a lot of it has been well spent; much of it is invested in the maintenance of infrastructure, the construction of schools and hospitals, etc. Nigeria continues to draw most of its foreign earnings from the petroleum sector, but is working to diversify its economy. Private investors are increasingly investing in the exploitation of other resources, such as coal, tin, iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc, and arable land. With its absence of wage and price controls and large, English-speaking populace, Nigeria is a popular destination for business outsourcing, which ensures that jobs, both skilled and unskilled, are plentiful. For those consistently unable to find a job, most state and local governments operate public works programs to provide employment for the needy. Nigeria has a large population of expatriate workers in the country, such as Filipino nurses, South Asian construction workers, American accountants, Israeli security guards, etc. In times of economic downturn, and especially in the slums, the presence of these foreigners has bred much resentment. Wealth distribution in Nigeria is extraordinarily inequal. Nigeria's top 10 richest percentile possesses 47 percent of the country's wealth. In relation to income distribution, some 6% of the country populates the upper economic income bracket, 20% the middle bracket, 41% the lower middle, 15% the lower bracket, and 18% the extreme poor. While Nigeria's wealthy are among the world's richest people and its middle class enjoys a standard of living comparable to the poorer countries of Europe, Nigeria's poor are among the most impoverished in the world. Many of Nigeria's extreme poor subsist on the equivalent of 30 cents a day, and malnutrition, crime, infant mortality, and juvenile delinquency are rife among the poor. While virtually 100% of the upper class and over 65-70% of the middle class are literate, literacy rates among the poor are below 30%, sometimes as low as 10% among the extreme poor. Needless to say, the disparity in health, life expectancy, etc. is just as large. While numerous international NGO-operated charities provide relief and ensure that outright starvation is rare, most Nigerian poor do not get enough nutrition or receive adequate healthcare. Increasing radicalization and politicization of the poor, especially union workers, is something the government has repeatedly tried, with few tangible results, to extinguish. The country's Gross National Income per capita is $5,000, the unemployment rate is 7.9%, and the inflation rate is 3.2%, down from 4% in 2007. Culture Literature Nigeria has a rich literary history, and Nigerians have authored many influential works of post-colonial literature in the English language. Nigeria's best-known writers are Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature and Chinua Achebe, the legendary writer best known for the novel Things Fall Apart and his controversial critique of Joseph Conrad. Other Nigerian writers and poets who are well known on the international stage include John Pepper Clark, Ben Okri, Buchi Emecheta, Helon Habila,Chidi Anthony Opara, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lanre Adekola, and Ken Saro Wiwa. Nigeria has the second largest newspaper market in Africa (after Egypt) with an estimated circulation of several million copies daily in 2003. Music and film Nigeria (naija) has been called "the heart of African music" because of its role in the development of West African highlife and palm-wine music, which fuses native rhythms with techniques imported from the Congo, Brazil, Cuba and elsewhere. Nigerian music includes many kinds of folk and popular music, some of which are known worldwide. Styles of folk music are related to the multitudes of ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments and songs. As a result, there are many different types of music that come from Nigeria. Many late 20th century musicians such as Fela Kuti have famously fused cultural elements of various indigenous music with American Jazz and Soul to form Afrobeat music. JuJu music which is percussion music fused with traditional music from the Yoruba nation and made famous by King Sunny Adé, is also from Nigeria. There is also fuji music, a Yoruba percussion style, created and popularized by the one and only Mr. Fuji, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister. There is a budding hip hop movement in Nigeria. Kennis Music, the self proclaimed "No 1 Record Label in Africa" and one of Nigeria's biggest record labels, has a roster almost entirely dominated by hip hop artists. Some famous musicians that come from Nigeria are Fela Kuti, Adewale Ayuba, Ezebuiro Obinna, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, King Sunny Adé, Ebenezer Obey, Femi Kuti, Lagbaja, Dr. Alban, Sade Aduand Tuface Idibia. The Nigerian film industry is known as Nollywood. Many of the film studios are based in Lagos and Abuja and the industry is now a very lucrative income for these cities. Religion Nigeria has a variety of religions which tend to vary regionally. The four main religions are Islam, Christianity, Orisha, and Animism. Animist religious practices include traditional religious belief systems such as Igbo mythology. Christianity is concentrated in the southeast portion of the country while Islam dominates in the north of the country. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, but a significant Shia minority exists. Across Yorubaland (western Nigeria, Benin, Togo), many people are adherents to Yorubo/Irunmole spirituality with its philosophy of divine destiny that all can become Orisha (ori, spiritual head; sha, is chosen: to be one with Olodumare (oni odu, the God source of all energy; ma re, enlighthens / triumphs). Other minority religious and spiritual groups in Nigeria include Hinduism, Judaism, The Bahá’í faith, and Chrislam (a syncretic faith melding elements of Christianity and Islam). Further, Nigeria has become an African hub for the Grail Movement, the Rosicrucian order (AMORC), and the Hare Krishnas. There is a surprisingly large degree of goodwill and tolerance among the different faiths in Nigeria, although critics attribute this to the government's brutally enforced secularism and violent repression of "extremism." Sport Like many nations, football is Nigeria's national sport. There is also a local Premier League of football. Nigeria's national football team, known as the Super Eagles, has made the World Cup on three occasions 1994, 1998, and 2002, won the African Cup of Nations in 1980 and 1994, and also hosted the Junior World Cup. They won the gold medal for football in the 1996 Summer Olympics (in which they beat Argentina) and have reached the finals of the U-20 World Championship in 2005. In September 2007, Nigeria won the U-17 World cup for the third time, becoming the only African nation to have achieved that feat and the second nation (after Brazil) to do so. Nigeria had previously won the very first U-17 tournament in 1985 (China '85), 1993 (Japan '93) and in 2007 (Korea '07). The nation's cadet team to Japan '93, produced some of the world's finest players notably Nwankwo Kanu, a two-time African Footballer of the year who won the European Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam and later played with Inter Milan (Italy), Arsenal FC (London, UK), West Brom (UK) and Portsmouth F.C. (UK). Other players that graduated from the Junior teams are Celestine Babayaro (of Newcastle United, UK), Wilson Oruma (of Marseille, France). According to the official September 2007 FIFA World Rankings, Nigeria is currently first-ranked football nation in Africa and the 19th highest in the world. Nigeria is also involved in other sports such as basketball and track and field. Boxing is also an important sport in Nigeria; currently, Samuel Peter is the World Heavyweight Champion. Cuisine Nigerian cuisine, like West African cuisine in general, is known for its richness and variety. Many different spices, herbs and flavorings are used in conjunction with palm oil or groundnut oil to create deeply-flavoured sauces and soups often made very hot with chilli peppers. Nigerian feasts are colorful and lavish, while aromatic market and roadside snacks cooked on barbecues or fried in oil are plentiful and varied. Category:Nations Category:Nigeria